


Alice

by AxZi



Category: Heart no Kuni no Alice | Alice in the Country of Hearts
Genre: Developing Relationship, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, F/M, Friendship/Love, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2018-08-20 13:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8250028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AxZi/pseuds/AxZi
Summary: An Alice who doesn't believe Wonderland is a dream, and so is a less honest, more demure Alice. She cavorts around with Ace.(That's it. That's basically it.)





	1. Fall

 “What do you mean, everyone will fall in love with me?”

Alice frowned in confusion, crossing her arms together as she watched the hovering and silver-haired figure. Not a moment ago he’d told her of that, and naturally, she didn’t understand. She didn’t understand to begin with how she could have ended up falling onto the surface after following a rabbit down that hole. Her mind positively cluttering up with all of these questions, she let out a shaky breath and ran her fingers through her hair.

“Exactly as I said,” the man’s baritone washed over her, almost a purr in pitch. Alice shivered, lowering her arm again so she could rub at the goose bumps on the skin of her arms.

The man clasped his fingers together, the built muscles in his own appendages flexing. “But more important than that, is this.”

He separated his hands, and in his palms she saw a....bottle? With a heart-shaped lid on it.

“What’s that?” she hesitated to inquire. For all she knew it was date rape drugs. It’d make sense, considering he had been carrying out an oddly sexual subject of conversation. Which were still ridiculous to her by the way. Everyone would fall in love with her? Please, not even in her fantasies.

“it’s yours,” he said, pushing the bottle towards her. She twitched her nose at the gesture but accepted the bottle anyway. She’d just have to keep it in her pocket and not drink it. Probably it wouldn’t harm her that way.

He cocked his head, silver locks sliding over the curve of his cheek. “No thank you?”

He grinned at her startled look, his white teeth on display. “You look remarkably like a rabbit right now.” A fascinated light entered his eyes. “But don’t be afraid. Look, there’s nothing in the bottle.”

She glanced down to see he was right—or sort of. There was a droplet at the very bottom. Hesitantly she raised her chin, meeting his eyes. “Then, why did you say it was important? I don’t understand.”

Was she meant to camp out in these woods which surrounded them? And the bottle would hold the water she needed to survive? If so, was he that cruel, to leave her alone like that after saying everyone would fall in love with her? Doubt continued to toy with her heart, as she realized he hadn’t really counted himself among the number.

But even those thoughts made her snort and shake her head to try and chase them away. She was being ridiculous again. Why should she want him to fall in love with her, for his previous words to be true? Surely she wasn’t that desperate. Surely.

His boot scuffed over sand and suddenly he was close enough she could smell his scent. Blueberries and ozone, like a thunderstorm at sea. She snapped out of it before she could make a fool of herself, and he began speaking.

“Alice, understand that you don’t have to worry anymore. Why not go along with the game? You hunted a rabbit down a hole and fell into it yourself, only for that rabbit to change into a man, say he was late, and run out of the forest without you. In all honesty, does the truth that we will all love you sound that farfetched, compared to what you’ve already been through?”

Oh. So he did count himself as one of those numbers.

Alice didn’t want it, but the heat rushed to her cheeks. She looked away in embarrassment, pulling at the corners of her skirt. He said he’d fall for her—so it was inevitable? But, she reminded herself, he’d also spoken about this whole situation as a game. And nobody takes a game seriously.

Her mood soured at the thought, and she dropped her hands to her sides. “Yes it does. It makes sense that I’d chase a rabbit.” She groped at the air above her head, “Since their ears are cute and petite. And that I fell into a hole is unfortunate too, but not out of character. I do admit the fact that the rabbit changed into a man caught me off guard-and the fact that there is a sky above me. But that is all.”

The smile on the man’s face faded, replaced by concern pinching the corners. She didn’t have to be a mind reader to know what he was thinking right now. Shame felt like heated coal on the insides of her face. She cleared her throat, looking at him side-along.

He said nothing for a moment, his blue eyes sweeping over her probingly. So she assumed, because one of his eyes was hidden behind a stark black eyepatch. To find evidence of the fact that she didn’t think she deserved to be loved, no doubt. And she didn’t, because it was true. How could anyone possibly be attracted to her to the extent that it reached love?

Nobody could. And that was the truth.

She cleared her throat again. “So, you said the bottle is important to me, although it doesn’t contain any liquid. Why?”

He humoured her, though the glint in his eyes told her this wasn’t the last she’d heard of it.

“The bottle is an important component to the game. And it’s the game that got you here, so the bottle will be the key you’ll need to get out of here if you wished. But to do that you’ll need to play the game, however much you want to deny it exists to begin with.”  
  
“But what is the game,” she pressed. “Does it have to do with you saying everyone will fall in love with me?” Was it, after all, a container to keep drugs in? Though she jested, because she doubted he with his sharp perception thought she’d willingly date drug someone. Or he was a lesser man than he’d given her the impression of.

He gave a nod of his head. “Partly so. While that is the game’s intentions, primarily you’re supposed to interact with those in this “country of hearts.” Whether you win our hearts or not, the bottle will fill with liquid. Like the droplet in it now,” he waved his hand, drawing her attention back to said singular droplet.

“So you all know I’m here,” Alice mused. The thought was scary, because it meant she could have ended up in this situation through premeditation. The idea the rabbit had gone to the surface and appeared in front of her temptingly, just to lead her to the hole that was his home had given her creepy vibes. It didn’t seem coincidental.

“We don’t,” the hovering man (who had stopped hovering somewhere in their conversation) clarified. He reached out, taking a strand of her blonde hair between his fingers. He might have startled her had he not done it slowly, like she was a wild animal he was trying not to scare of.

He ran his thumb down the lock of hair before letting go of it, and she turned a look at him with a raised brow.

He didn’t bother explaining the action he’d took.

“Only I and Peter know you’re here, though the others will be aware that you are, “a foreigner” or outsider, as some might call you,” he went on to say. A disquieted expression crossed his face in the next. Like it had just passed his mind he’d left the oven on.

“Outsider?” she inquired, but he didn’t answer, snapping his head around the area as if searching.

“I’m sorry, but, someone unfortunate is going to enter this glade soon. I’m going to have to end this here.” He really did seem sorry, his baritone dipping low so it gave the impression of mourning. His feet pulled up from the earth, and then he was gone.

Almost immediately the apprehension returned, and she felt ten pounds heavier. Her heart thumped like a rabbit’s leg. She was alone in the forest, and she didn’t know how far away from civilisation. Her only respite the fact Nightmare had said a man would enter the glade soon, but if it were someone who chased him away, she couldn’t hope much.

A rustle came from the trees to the right of the glade, before the slim but tall figure of a man appeared, stepping over a falling branch and into view.

Unlike Nightmare he wasn’t lean, though the thickness of a red leather coat and his other clothes gave him a more built appearance. His hair was a messy red the red of the coat, his looks boyishly soft. Bowstring lips quirked as he walked closer to her in the glade, earth squelching beneath him were his boots dug in.

“Hello! Could you tell me what you’re doing here exactly? And with Nightmare, of all people?” Though his words on the surface seemed interrogative, the smile on his face and the relaxation in the stride took the edge off of them.

But Alice still kept her guard up. She knew better than to fall for his tricks, when he’d chased away the only one who could give her some answers. Play the game, Nightmare had said. Interact with people, he said. Okay, but she’d choose with who and how. She didn’t know enough about this man to hope.

“So you know who that man is?” she asked. “I found myself here somehow after chasing a rabbit in a hole, so I only just got to know him. He said something about me being a foreigner?”

Playing ignorant was probably the best defence she had at the moment, since none of it was faked. And if what Nightmare had said was true, he’d know she was a foreigner and know about the game.

“Oh?” Both of the man’s brows rose. “You don’t know? I see.” He hummed a contemplative tune and rubbed his chin. “That changes things. I guess you are an innocent bystander after all. Well, in that case...”

His smooth tenor trailing off, the man turned around as if he were to jump into bushes again.

“Wait!”

Alice ran up to him and grabbed his arm, her nails tugging at leather. “Do you know where civilisation is? I’m completely lost, because like I said – “

“You’re lost?” he cut her off. He turned around, and she let go of his elbow. She backed away, but when she saw his face, she saw she hadn’t angered him. His face had stayed the same; a refreshing smile winking at her. “Why didn’t you say so? You can come with me,” he abruptly decided, and his callused fingers closed around her shoulders.

She stumbled underneath his weight for a minute. “Hey!”

A tinkling laugh left him, before he clapped her on the back and let go, the refreshing smile now curving with a hint of tease. “You’re pretty slight. Interesting!”

She huffed, brushing her dress as if trying to get rid of some dirt. “I’m not slight, I’m just smaller than you.”

“I’m Ace,” he volunteered, completely ignoring her complains. Okay then.

“Alice,” she returned, and smoothed down her apron one last time before folding her arms together. “You said you’d take me with you. You know a way to civilisation?”

He gave her a confident nod and a thumb’s up. “Sure I do! We might have to camp soon, though. Looks like it’s getting dark.”

Alice lifted her head and looked. The moon stared back at her, pregnant and fair. She let the air escape her in a woosh. “...Oh.” She hadn’t noticed it. In fact, not a moment ago it had been sunny. She knew it had been, because otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to get a good look of Ace.

Ace took his coat off, laying the necessary camping equipment on the ground. She peeked past his arm at what he was doing.

“Do you need my help?”

“No no,” he said, shoving a pole deeper into the earth. She guessed it was to act as support for the tent.

Shaking her head off the thoughts spinning in them, she dropped to her knees into grass. Her hand lazily drawing circles in a mesh of leaves and dirt, she watched him like that until he was done.

Oh, but did the tent look quite small – and they were both going to have to sleep in it? In so close quarters, when they were strangers to each other? But from the way he leered at her inside off it, patting the ground in obvious welcome, she knew it was expected off her.

Letting out a sigh, she crawled the last distance over and drew the flap shut afterwards.

“So, Alice...you’re an outsider. Is that right?” Ace broke the silence first, abrupt like shattering glass and with a grin on his face. He was a stranger, she had to remind herself, but helplessly she couldn’t help return the smile. Though he’d called her an outsider.

“I prefer the term foreigner. But yes, I can’t say I’m from around here.” She wrinkled her nose, shuffling back. “Wherever here is, anyway.”

“The country of hearts.”

For once, Ace’s eyes drifted away to gaze at the blue wall of the tent. “That’s here. You must have the worst luck, getting here by accident.”

She could taste the irony in his voice and frowned. “The worst luck? You speak as if this country is...bad.”

He answered the underlying question by glancing back at her. Despite the warm colour of his eyes, they chilled her.

He laughed softly. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you...that’s okay. Since you’re stuck here, you’ll understand soon enough.”

Her hackles rising, she backed away from him a bit so her back hit the canvas. What did he mean? Was Wonderland, as Nightmare had referred this country as, really that bad? Did it have to do with the game? Did it have to do with the fact people could only arrive here through a hole?

“Aa, you look scared.” Not a moment after his words had been spoken, the glare in his eyes swiftly replaced by regret. He sank deeper into the ground, probably to seem less intimidating. That most of all told her he didn’t mean it. To scare her like that.

She brushed his words off with the sweep of her hand. “It’s nothing.”

A confused look powered on his face, before he shrugged. “But speaking of which, I can guess you don’t know anything about wonderland.”

A nod.

He brushed his knuckles contemplatively against his chin. “In that case, you want me to tell you more?”

Another nod.

“Right. So, wonderland is in control of three different factions. I’m a member of one of those factions. Because the country is under a three way struggle—“

“Nobody can get anywhere, right?” She interrupted, the information ringing a bell. She remembered hearing about the balance of power before, in social economics class.

“Precisely,” he chirped throwing his arms up in the air.

What?

He chuckled at the expression she had on the face, the rogue. Dropping them to his sides, he went on, “The three leaders of the factions are: Vivaldi, of hearts castle; Blood Dupre, of hearts mansion and Merry Gowland, of the amusement park.”

The last name he stressed, and she could see his eyes dancing as he focused on her. She raised a brow at his...merry behaviour, before it clicked.

“Merry Gowland....carousal?”

She heard his control audibly snap before he started coughing. “C-carousal!” he laughed, hitting the canvas past his hips. “You could have said Merry-go-land, but carousal is what you came at!”

He seemed to find this very amusing, throwing his head back and cackling in a way any witch would be proud off. She felt a pout form on her face. Was what she’d just done really that amusing to him? But she said nothing about it, allowing his hilarity to play out before he regained his composure again, five minutes later.

He wiped the tears from his eyes. “Alice, you’re so interesting.”

Pinned in place as she was by his suddenly intent eyes, she merely remained silent. Primarily so he didn’t see how flustered his words had made her.

Ace grinned.


	2. Nothing

Alice woke up early the next day after spending the night playing card games with the man. She woke up expecting herself to be back where she came from, and felt a note of quiet unease when instead her feet felt soil and her hands groped at the tent’s canvas.

“Mornin’” Ace said a few meters away from her, already awake. Most likely his movement had been what brought her to life as well, even if unconsciously.

“Morning,” she greeted back, clamping down on her yawn as she pulled her legs towards her and held onto the side of the tent for stability while sitting up.

“You disappointed you woke up?” his voice lilting upwards questioningly, he queried from where he was sliding his wet stone against his sword. In lieu of answering, she slid her eyes down towards said sword. It was a broad sword, it’s hilt spun out of red dyed bamboo. Both edges flaming sharp. She could imagine he’d used that sword before. Even the title he’d given her – sir knight – said that he was a person who used violence. Sure, maybe to protect the kingdom he was knight of, but nevertheless, that meant he used it on people.

Alice had been careless last night, to pass so easily through the tent’s flaps, to chatter so casually with the strange man and then to even sleep, defenceless, in the same four by four tent area as him, under the same sky.

He watched the gears cranking behind her eyes in silence, seemingly content with continuing sharpening his sword and smiling at her so disarmingly that the gesture almost meant nothing to her.

And Alice knew herself better than anyone else. She knew that, for all her mind was spitting mad that she had trusted this man not to take any extra measures with her, that was only under normal circumstances. Under normal circumstances, she’d never be able to trust a man like this, knight or not, sword or not. But here, even though he was close enough that if he swung that piece of metal he'd skewer her through the front, there were no alarm bells ringing.

She trusted him implicitly.

Alice smoothed down a lock of hair next to her chin to hide how much that shook her and finally replied, “I just wasn’t expecting the fact that this isn’t a dream. Still, that doesn’t mean I’m not thankful you gave me shelter.”

The man grinned. “No thanks necessary. I’m just happy I didn’t ruin your first impression of me. I did almost leave you behind, didn’t I. _And_ I look like a crook.” 

She retorted, “Relying only on outside appearances is a rude thing to do.” Even if Alice tended to that, she’d already had experience – Peter – that she shouldn’t. Despite herself, Peter’s face flashed in front of her mental eyes at the thought, looking just as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as before. Ah, but don’t misunderstand. Alice hadn’t checked whether the draperies matched the ears, so whether he had one was still a mystery to her.

“So what are we going to do now?” she asked. She couldn’t possibly stay living with him in his tent. Whatever code of manners this Wonderland had, she doubted it’d let her stay living in a tent with him forever, even with how divergent this place was from her home world. That reminded her, “You don’t always live in a tent, right?” If he was a knight, then his place had to be in the castle.

“I stay here so often by now, it might as well be. At least three times as much as I’m back home,” he corrected her, merrily. Before saying, “But I am seeing in your eyes what you want to actually ask. Whether I stay in the castle. Right?”

She obediently nodded her head at the guess.

He had a pleasant laugh, easy on the ears. “I often stay on the castle grounds, but the last time I’ve been to my room is...” He hummed to himself, turning his face to the left and the right, the eyes clouded in thought. “Has been over 300 time skips so far, I think?”

That had to be impossible. If 3 time changes were a natural day, which it was back in her home and to keep a sense of order, she decided to assign to her time keeping here too, then that’d mean over a hundred days had gone by since he’d been under the covers back in his room. “Is the castle’s regent a slave driver or something,” she burst out, because how else could this possibly be.

“Nnnnoo,” the cheerful knight drawled out as cheerfully as anything else. He explained while his hands traced lazy figures in the air, “I just like camping. It’s a thing that always gets my heart pumping. It’s more a lifestyle, than a hobby. You know?”  

Saying so, he turned an almost commanding face to her.

“Camping is fine,” she admitted stiffly, privately thinking about her lazy Sunday afternoons spent in the pleasurable presence of her sister more than anything else. That wasn’t exactly camping, but if she squinted at it the right way...

“You see?” he replied, the commanding presence fading like a fever dream and the usual, carefree knight taking its place again. Blinking, she decided she’d imagined it.

She shucked her shoulders up in a shrug. “Yes, I’d think so.” Restless, she toyed with her fingers against the cotton material of her skirt. “I was just wondering whether that’s where we’re going right now?”

The man hummed in thought, before giving a quick shake of the head. He patted at a pouch saddled at his hip, which she only now noticed. “Have to bring these to my friend before we go there.”

“Is that so?" she asked him wondering who exactly his friend was.

He smiled back at her, “Yup," saying it cheerfully. The awkward air between them was getting fantastically overwhelming, but she tried to brush it of with a lightly said, "Well, lets go then."

"You don't need anything to eat?" he pondered before she could move.

She glanced over, her eyebrows raised. "You have food?"

He laughed, "You think I’d go camping for an undetermined amount of time without food?" "Well..." she said in return, taken off guard.

He laughed again, the red in his eyes dancing and tapped a finger against his nose with a knowing look. "Just joking. Here.” There was the rustling sound of a wrapper being wrinkled as he put his hand in his pouch, coming out with four sandwiches.

It was cold food—which, of course it was, there was no machine in the room with which he could heat it up. The bread felt fresh though, so she took two sandwiches from him and ate them in small, petite bites.

She signalled she was done with a nod his way.

He smiled in understanding, after which he stood up and moved the flaps away to get outside. Which, good.

After following him outside- “So how long will it take to get there?" she questioned of him.

"Not long. We only need to walk down this road. It goes on straight for quite some time, you know."

She hiked her eyebrows up in scepticism. "Then why are you stepping over that plant over the side of the path now?”

Caught, the man stopped in his movements, which looked ridiculous with his leg still held aloft in the air. "Uh, well...." he began, with a trailing ah ha ha ha. "You see," he tried a second time, this time not bursting into sheepish laughter- “This is the correct way," and finished the obvious lie brightly.

She just gazed at him in wonder at the blatant, obvious falsehood. Why, even? Did he do that purposelessly or something? Was that the sort of man this guy was-? "Let’s just continue down this road," she suggested politely, kept her name calling to herself. She very much wanted to say – “you liar!" though. But that was her thing more than anything.

"Let’s," supported the man, and they began to walk down the straight road in silence now. Well, for a second of silence, since the man began talking again soon enough, "So, why exactly are you walking with me?"

She was take aback by his words, but really, didn't know what to say now that he'd uncovered the elephant in the room. "I...I just got here and I don't really have anything on me. I don't even know where civilisation is. So I just thought I'd..."

"You’d follow me and hope that I took pity on you and led you to a place with a roof over your head?" he teased, somewhat mean spirited. But when she gave his face a closer look, it was frozen in that same expression of refreshment, like he didn't mean the slightest to offend her. She Wondered about that.

"Anyway, can you tell me anything about your friend?" she deflected and didn’t raise her query to him. She wasn’t interested enough to know the answer.

"You don't want to talk about how you got here?"

"Oh, you were waiting for an explanation," she said, her voice hushed in understanding, and fidgeted nervously with the material of her skirt.

"Yes—why, did you not want to tell me?"

"Well, not want to tell... not really. I guess I just didn’t want to tell you how much of an idiot I was."

"An idiot?" She could hear the amusement coagulating in his voice.

"Yes." Answering so, she flicked a strand of her dark blonde hair behind her forehead. "I got here...because I followed a rabbit down a rabbit hole. He... I thought it was just a normal rabbit you know, and the hole was rather brilliantly concealed behind some bushes."

"Is that how it went? And a rabbit, huh," the sparkling man replied. "Did he call himself Peter, by any chance?”

 

She ran that name over her internal database, and it clicked. "Yes, actually.” She hesitated, before finishing with, “Peter White. So... if you know his name, does that mean he's infamous?"

"That's a good word... Infamous. He is, but not by the measuring stick you’re using. All of us role holders are in our own way infamous.”

"Even you," she cut in.

"Even me.”

The amusement was back again, heavily saturating his tongue in an internal sort of irony she didn’t know enough of him to understand. Maybe she never would.

He went on to say, “So it's probably good—for the faceless, that is, that there's only 12 of us at a time. Anymore and we'd have depopulated Wonderland before they could populate it."

Alice let that—and its connotations—sink in. "Wait a minute—"

"You're wondering what I mean by that? Well, you’re place has people—the nobility, whatever—who do what they please, right? And then there's the under class, the peasantry, who just have to deal with it? Well, that's kind of how the role holder system works. But I say kind of because in many ways the degree of influence we have depends on our roles. Though again, even without those roles, we can still very easily kill someone and get away with it. Being role holders gives us certain powers. I mean, how else would we be able to defend ourselves against assassins?”

“Assassins," she repeated dryly. “Assassins... You mean...Actual ones. Actual assassins, who could very easily attack you whenever. You're plagued with them?"

If this _was_ true...she was not ashamed to say her first worry was for her own skin—from his words, it seemed that being a role holder gave him the ability to defend himself, after all.

"Yup! They could show up out of nowhere right now!"

“But,” he concluded, seeing the paper white texture her skin had taken on, "I doubt you'll have to worry about them. At least right now. ‘Cause you know? Your rabbit doesn’t know where you are at this moment, right? So then, he wouldn’t send out assassins after people when his outsider could end up betwixt of it.”

Dim alarm bells began to ring in her kind. "Wait, isn't he a role holder?" she said, thinking she'd misheard. "Wouldn’t he have to deal with assassins too? Rather than being the one to send assassins after people."

"You don't understand the degree of influence we have in our respective roles. He's the prime minister. Naturally, he could very easily send assassins after me if he so wanted. Which he does! Even the Queen has to worry."

"That... that sounds terrible!" she exclaimed.

He winked. "You worried for little old me?"

"Worried? I'm worried for any of the people he’d send assassins after, since what you just said—about him not knowing where I am—it sounded very much like he sends assassins after many people just because..."

 

"Well, not just because. He hates allll of us, you know. So he has a reason for it.” The assuring tone in his voice and his ever-refreshing countenance was incredibly at odds with the turn the topic had taken.

Alice tried to give it its gravitas back. "That's not the point. The point—ah, screw it. Just tell me—do you also send assassins after him?" She dropped it like a hot potato half way through though.

"You think I'd so something as plainly villainous as that?" he gaped. "How could I possibly." Then he smiled, a slant of the mouth, a flash of white teeth. ”But you're right. Or rather, you’re thinking in the right direction."

She threw her voluminous hair over her shoulder. Glared at him with impatience stop-signing from her eyes.

He spread his hands in a declarative statement. “Okay, I’ll stop beating around the bush. All of us, role holders _and_ faceless—don’t let them fool you—are terrible. It’s how Wonderland is, it’s how we were all brought up here to be. But I use the Peter specifically as an example how power can be misused here. Since he’s the prime minister, he naturally has control over people, so he uses them as his weapon of choice.”

Stopped, tilted his head in a thought. “And poison, but I think that’s personal taste more than anything else. But using the Cheshire cat in the same situation for a moment, since he doesn’t have Peter’s power of people, he’d have to use his own hands—or gun—to do the same.”

Alice nodded at his words, listening quietly. It sounded like Wonderland wasn’t the wonder land—haha, puns—she’d been promised after all. She wondered absently how it’d work out with people like Peter—who liked to poison people? People poisoned people here? Maybe she should have worried about the bottle after all—supposedly going to fall in love with her. When the people here already seemed to be at odds with one another. A battle royal?

Alice was never so lucky as to get something without it also having drastic downsides, so she was beginning to trust the Nightmare’s words more—about the role holders here falling in love with her. If so, she was also going to have to worry about the people getting into duels with one another in striving for her hand.

She didn’t know how to react at the fact that this world literally brought up the people resident to it to be terrible though. She’d already known Peter was terrible—he’d snatched her away from her home without so much of an as you please. Then she’d been told that people would love her _just_ because she was from another world, which, figures, but also already expressed the screwed-up nature of them.

(Though, even if that was true, Alice really didn’t believe it’d happen in her case. She wasn’t _just_ an outsider—she was Alice. Alice, who was never enough, who always came up short. Too gloomy to be the elegant angel in the house imitated in her older sister, but not genuine enough to be the cute watercolour picture embodied in her younger sister.)

“We’re almost there,” said Ace, snapping her out of her thoughts. He swept his arm, gesturing grandly at in front of them, where the very top of a tower was peaking out from behind some trees.

Seeing the end in sight seemed to invigorate Ace, and he began lengthening his strides, the heels of his boots clicking a staccato beat on the bricked path. She had to hurry up herself to keep up, pinching the material of her skirt from her hips between her hands.

Abruptly he did a stiff 90 degree left turn, confidently swinging his feet into the earth to the side of the path. He began tearing his way through the off-road terrain.

Was he supposed to be going that way? Alice looked doubtfully at the tower before switching her view to him. She wanted to yell after him, tell him he was going the wrong way.

As it usually did when it was critical, she opened her mouth and prepared to shout, only for nothing but air to come out. Alice, gritting her teeth instead, began stomping after the loose cannon of a knight.

She caught up to him when they were definitely going the completely wrong direction. “Ace!” – and of course, it’s at this point her voice would _actually_ work with her. “-Hey, Ace!”

Ace paused, letting her arm brush his before lowering his hand to grip a hold of her wrist. He continued walking on unperturbed as she explained, “We’re going the whole different direction. We’re supposed to go back, that way—“ she poked a hole in the air to the right of them with a jot of her nail, while he said, “Nonsense nonsense. This is just a short cut. We’ll get there quicker!”

“We.... We won’t, Ace. We won’t,” she sighed, already recognising she was championing a lost cause.

His head swivelled as he locked gazes with her, the movement particularly owl-like. “You know the way to go even though you’ve never been here before?”

She met his eyes flatly, and nodded her head at her still pointing finger. “We can still see the tower sticking out from the woods...right to the left of us.” Usually he’d have a point... just not in this case.

“Huh,” said Ace, slowing his strides down until he came to a total stop. “You’re right.”

Finally she’d gotten through to him. Alice let the irritation float from her, her shoulders slouching now that it didn’t have to carry that weight anymore. “So you’ll follow behind me this time?” she asked him, giving his hand still locked with hers a shake.

“I don’t know. Usually I never let anyone lead me anywhere-“ explaining why he got lost this easily, “-but I might make an exception for you.” He winked. “You’re cute, after all.”

Her eyebrows shot upwards astronomically, like the appendages were trying to reach the sun. About as far reaching as her belief at his words just now. But Alice didn’t say anything self-depreciating like “never me” or “wait till you see my younger sister” – she knew better than that. Instead, she acted like the compliment had been well received with a smile and a bashful, “thank you for the compliment”.

For some reason, that dimmed the brightness of Ace’s smile. Alice let the irrational urge to apologise wash over her and move on and kept her lips sealed shut. It did make her wonder – was what Nightmare warned her of already starting? Was the knight starting to feel affection for her? Alice scoffed mentally at that, but... decided to keep it in mind, at least.

“Actually, I don’t really want you to lead me to the clocktower,” he changed his mind.

Wait, why?

The man hooked his thumbs through two of the many straps of his coat with some sage words, “Isn’t the journey as important as the destination?”

Her eyes glazing over in sheer disbelief at this man’s nerve, Alice stared mutely at him.

Ace’s lips pulled into a crooked grin at this, as if it were something _positive. Positive._

But that didn’t matter, time to return to the topic. “But doesn’t your friend need the items in your pouch?” Reminding him so, she let her arm drop from where she’d still been holding it in the direction of the clocktower. _Please let this work,_ she thought. Alice really wanted an actual bed to sleep on.

“Hm, that _is_ a predicament.” Ace nodded fervently in agreement with her. “Okay, let’s continue then.” He almost tried to go on in the same direction they’d been walking for the past couple of minutes, but with a warning squeeze of her hand, she managed to get him to move into the correct direction.

With a sense of direction that bad... how had he gotten anywhere before she’d come along? That was the question. Something told her “nowhere much”. The same something that reminded her about how he’d spoke about his tent—as if it were his home. The connotations were not particularly kind.

Thankfully, this time he did let her lead the way, and eventually they made it to a plaza which held the tower to the middle of it, connected to surrounding support columns, all bricked in the same grey-blue stone as the actual tower part. An interesting, almost artistic decision. There lay a town to the side, which Alice made a mental note to visit once she and the knight were done with the latter’s business in the clocktower.

She let go of Ace’s hand, and he walked forwards of her to push the door open. Not bothering to knock.

There was a narrow foyer inside the door, and further on from there a workshop. A man with blue hair tied up behind his back in a low pony tail was tinkering behind a black steeled desk.

“Julius,” called out Ace jokingly, making a beeline towards him. “I’m home!”

Ignoring the meaning behind those words, the man coolly responded, “You’re late.”

With a soft squeak of her shoe against the linoleum floor, Alice entered the room as well. “That’s probably... because you almost wondered off path, several times,” she addressed to Ace.

“Probably!” he opined—the man had no shame.

“And you are?” Asking this, Ace’s Julius turned slightly so she could see more of his profile.

Sleet blue eyes levelly met hers from above an aristocratically bent nose. He hid broad shoulders beneath a coat with clock patterns trimmed in with gold that looked quite nice.  Speaking of clocks... she spied some gears and other clock parts next to his hands on the table.

"Allice Liddle," she introduced herself, her wrist bowed inwards to gesture at herself.

"An outsider—-I didn’t permit this."

“Wow. Nice to meet you too,” she muttered underneath her breath at the rude welcome.

“You don’t understand. I’m the gatekeeper between this world and yours. I should have known you crossed over, since without my permission you shouldn’t have been able to.”

He looked over at Ace, who was simply whistling in the background. But, noticing his friend’s eyes were on him, the knight tilted his chin in anticipation at his question. He said, "Yeah, I noticed that too. And I didn't think you’d have permitted an outsider to cross over. But you won’t kick her out, right? Since she's here already, there isn't any harm in letting her stay. Right?"

"Kick me out?" she echoed absently. That... actually, wasn't that what she wanted? To return to those lazy, afternoon days Peter White had plucked her out of. For that was how it had gone.

" _Can_ you just kick me out?" she asked, wanting to make sure of it.

"You want to return where you came from?" Ace repeated, understanding where she was getting at. "But you only got here—and time is not a thing here. Can't you postpone it? You can just return later, when you feel fed up with this place. But until then... you really can't stay?"

"Well..." Alice wouldn’t say she couldn't stay, but she had to admit that she didn't really want to. Why would she, after all? This place was dangerous. If what Ace had told her was correct, its people were all psychopaths in practice, including him. (She took note of the fact that this was something Nightmare had carefully not said, apparently knowing she’d act on this information with the intent to return home).

But from the wounded, or rather, intense look Ace gave her, she had a feeling like he really, really didn't want her to leave...and he did speak the truth. Time didn’t work well here.  It was all wonky. So, if what he said was true, no time would pass in her own world no matter how long she stayed here. In that case, did she need to return immediately? Couldn't she see for herself just how terrible this place was before coming to any real conclusions?

Alice brushed a lock of her dark blonde hair out of her face and exhaled. "Okay, sure. I could stay here for a here...at least for as long as there are things I can do. " And also, there were people who wanted her to stay here. She shot Ace what she hoped was a clandestine look.

That settled, Ace turned his puppy eyes on Julius, the one with luscious hair. She guessed it was because he'd needed her support before he could truly change Julius's mind about kicking her out, if that was a thing—and it was sounding like it—-that he could do.

"But who are you exactly," she questioned, the point coming across her. "That you’re able to authorize people to come in here or forbid them if you don't want them to. And that you can kick a person out of this world that effortlessly." She hesitated to voice her last thoughts, because it was clearly ridiculous. But Ace was nodding at her to go ahead, and Julius's eyes were inscrutable were they still rested on her so she did finish, "Are-are you a god?"

Ace burst into laughter not a second later. "Ha, God! Julius, she also thinks you’re a god. That’s hilarious. It's hilarious that the one outsider who ended up in this world thinks as highly of you as I do.”  

"Just like you do?" Alice said. But "thinks?" did that mean—he wasn't a god, or at least, something close to that?

"No," Julius replied, "I’m not." She must have spoken out loud without noticing. "This is a talent I have only because of my role. But, it is a role that would exist even without me. I’m not necessary." He smiled brusquely, with the same internal irony as Ace, earlier. “That's how it is.”

"Aw, don't be so pessimistic, Julius," said Ace, pillowing the back of his head with his arms.

“I wonder though. If there's nobody else who can do what you do—and you say there is a replacement for you if you die, but bare with me—the whole fact that it would be a replacement and not you already tells me that it is you the power comes from. That there isn’t another being that could come close to doing that, then you are the closest thing to a god this place has. Right?"

She looked at Ace and Ace looked back, a small smile on his face and encouragement in that smile.

"That's not..." The man sighed. "That's not how it is. But I can already say it is a lost cause trying to convince you two of it. So I won't. More importantly, I want to ask why you are traveling with this guy."

He was clearly referring to Ace here.

Alice had wondered when he'd ask her that. "Well... I ... Well, I was talking to Nightmare and he told me I was an outsider—"

"—of course it'd be Nightmare," cut in Julius—

"But, he vanished of before I could get him to give me a place to sleep or anything. Or anything to eat. I'm literally penniless since I came her only with the clothes on my back and nothing else. Ace was kind enough to offer me shelter in his tent and now he let me tag along with him. I think maybe I’ll eventually be able to find accommodation in the castle, if it’s queen—I'm sure you said there was a queen—will let me.”

"You'll have better luck asking the king. Or Peter," Ace did say.

"Peter White," she mumbled. Right, he was the prime minister. Naturally he’d be part of the government and thus reside in the same castle as the royalty. Or... maybe not so natural after all, but it seemed things worked that way here. Maybe they didn't have anything like a parliament, and that’s why he belonged in the castle instead?

"You don't want to ask permission from Peter, though," Ace noticed, He was speaking true. She really, really didn't. He was her kidnapper and a psycho. She didn't want to have to do anything with him. even if his face was fair.

"In that case, you can continue traveling in the tent with me,” Ace cheered, like it was sorted, like he'd had it settled. Yeahhhh no. Alice didn't want to remain staying in a tent all this time.

“Don’t ask,” Julius advised when her eyes turned on him.

“He doesn’t have any space,” Ace helpfully translated.

“Then in that case Peter White is my best hope.” Alice grimaced at the thought, which was noticed by the two in the room by their sympathetic looks. But she didn’t see any concern, or, god forbid, worry. She hid her relief at the fact. Her hint of fear at the thought of facing him had been well concealed.

That did make her wonder, though. "Will you lead me there, Ace?" she asked of him. "I know that you'll have to go out of your way to do so and that may be too much of a burden-"

"Okay, sure," he interrupted her before she could go into a whole spiel. He was smiling handsomely at her with the refreshing smile she was becoming ever so surely accustomed too. Alice felt her heart speed up a tick in response but stomped on the reaction with the habit of experience.

Julius, to the left hand side of her, let out a snort. "If you think he'll be able to lead you there without incident, you're deluded."

Alice's first instinct was to deny his words...but, on second thought, he had it right. If Ace's sense of direction was so bad he couldn't even get here despite this being a precious friend's house, how would he be to get to the castle, which based on his own account, he was barely ever at?

He even thought of his tent as his home, for goodness's sake!

"You're being mean, Julius," said Ace, swinging backwards on the balls of his feet. "Don't be jealous Alice will get to spend more time with me than you do. You know you'll always be my best friend."

"Uh, what." Blinking, Alice was tempted to clear her ears to see whether she'd heard that correctly. On one hand, that was probably an obvious joke. But on the other, it was also somewhat heart-warming? If she considered the fact that he was reassuring his friend of his friendship and not the fact that he was debasing her.

"We're not friends," Julius repeated, his tone reaching for the sub zeroes in lack of warmth. Despite the man's harsh words, Ace was still smiling like he was a flower drinking in the sun’s rays.

There are probably underlying themes going on here that I don't understand, thought Alice, flicking her eyes from the one role-holder to the other. But that didn't matter—she hadn't come here to guess at the relationships of these people. She'd come here for shelter.

Speaking of which, she was starting to feel hungry. When she spoke of this to the room at large, Ace made a suggestion.

"Why not go to one of the cafés in the town next to the tower?" He gestured with a tilt of his head in it's direction. Which was incidentally the total opposite direction. So his sense of direction was that bad, Alice thought.

"That sounds good to me," she replied, glancing under her fringe at the luscious haired clockmaker, who was still standing stiffly in the corner with his work desk.

"Julius is also coming," Ace said, completing her thoughts.

"I'm not," the other shot down without question, and turned his back on them as he hunkered back down over his desk. "I have a lot of work to do that I can't postpone."

Alice looked archly at him, pushing her cupped hands against the cement of the wall behind her in her restlessness. "And— why can't you? I understand that you have work to do, but you also need to eat. You can just subtract your usual lunch time with right now—" it occurred to her only mid-way in her words that "—oh, wait, except if you already had your break?"

Ace broke out into cackles at that. She first thought nothing of it—he was a good-natured fellow, had laughed and smiled more than she'd ever seen anyone else do before. But then he managed to get out, "So pushy Alice!"

"It's like there's two of them," Julius droned, in complete agreement.

Pushy? Alice felt her throat closing-up as she rewound and then replayed what she'd just said. "Ah." She let out a faint sound. Ah indeed. That had been very presumptuous of her.

"But that's interesting, Alice," Ace opined, with the flash of his white teeth as he grinned. He leaned forwards where he stood. "It's always like that lady-like exterior of yours hides a delicious secret, and if I play with it enough, it'll peel of and let me feast."

Dot, dot dot. Alice looked at him askew for his words, finding herself taken aback as she was so often around these people. Peel it of? Delicious? Let me feast?

"So creepy." Her true opinion slipped past her lips before she could snare it, but that only widened his grip up past his ears, and the knight said, "Of course, that counts for most people. We're rarely what we broadcast to the world. And that's fine! That's even normal! In fact, if that wasn't this way, and someone really was as put together as most people try to seem, that'd be creepy in itself, wouldn’t it?"

She nodded absently at his words. She could see the truth in them.

For some reason, it made her think about her sister. Lorina. Lorina was always well put together. Kind and elegant, she made sure that nobody saw the turmoil she had to be feeling from having to put her life on pause taking care of Alice and their younger sister. Because that was exactly the sort of person she was, who so genuinely cared that she couldn't burden others with an emotion that sure, she was free to feel, but could also very easily alienate people.

Or so Alice had always figured. The cracks in Lorina's exterior were simply impossible to find. Alice knew there had to be cracked simply because of her understanding of human nature, and the fact that Lorina wasn't getting the experience any other woman would get, her age. And it was those same experiences that Lorina had encouraged Alice to get, speaking about her maybe finding a man she'd care for more than her sister and etc.

By all intents and purposes, Lorina was the same "perfect" being Ace spoke so theoretically about. But Alice could never find that creepy. She was envious of it, wanted it for herself.

"Do you really not want to go with us then?" Alice shoved the thoughts of her sister to the back of her head again, locking it away to be ruminated about on a better day. "I'm sorry that I was pushy," she apologised belatedly.

Ace was still trying to wheedle the clockmaker into coming along so on second thought he probably wasn't even paying that any mind. Good, or else she'd feel like even more of a failure at—what was it Ace said again? Appearing like a well-bred lady or something or the other?

Alice thought about back home. She thought about the fact that she'd gotten a job behind her family's back because of the image of Alice her sister had of her. The one of "cute, obedient" sister, who still wore the blue, frilly clothes she'd grown out of and who would never slap back if anyone started a fight with her. The sister who needed Lorina's defending—and hadn't she decided not to think about her? What was she doing?

She heard Julius distantly. He sighed his agitation out, smoothing his hand down his hair. "Alright. I'll come along. But only for today, and only because if I left you two to your own devices, there's no saying what you'll get up to."

"You'll look out for us? Aww Julius, I knew you cared,” his voice sharp with taunt, Ace wilfully misinterpreted. She had a feeling he’d done nothing else but, ever since they’d shown up in this room.

Ace had spoken about finding her interesting and wanting to find what was under her exterior but, she was finding more and more, that he was the true enigma here. She almost wanted to solve it.

Almost.

Then she remembered the words “depopulating Wonderland” and all her desire to do so seeped from her. 

As one, they started making their way out of the room, before they were standing on the grey tiles of the tower's plaza.

"So where are we going?" she wondered once they started to walk. Naturally, to the left of the tower, where the streets started.

Ace stretched, and once he was finished said, "Didn't I tell you? To one of the cafes!"

"What cafe? What's the menu like?" she asked idly. The sun no longer shone. Sometime while they were in the tower's work shop with the blue-haired clockmaker, there had been a time change that was dyeing the once blue sky a dazzling mixture of yellow, red, orange and purple. Craning her neck, Alice watched it.

"You'll like it," Ace assured, a mysterious lilt in his tongue.

Ever the contractionary, Julius said, "We don't know that for sure."

Alice felt the wrought tension between the two of them walking between them, but Ace had insisted upon putting her there, so she could only endure.

Finally, after another five-minute walk, they entered the cafe Ace spoke about. Thank goodness, they did because Alice had been absolutely about to burst from the awkwardness Ace seemed completely inodiated against and Julius emitted from his pores.

After a chat with one of the greeters, they were given a room at the back of the cafe. A window seat with cushy sofa seats, which Alice immediately sat onto. Not a second later, Ace joined her and finally Julius took his seat across from them.

Alice blurted out what she'd been wondering since the moment they'd entered the tower, "Are you two actual friends?"

The two shared a look—which was already supported the "yes we are friends" theory since she'd never known people to be able to without being quite familiar to one another.

"That's complicated," Julius finally sighed—and considering the negative bent he'd taken on almost every other topic, that was another word in support of Ace's friends theory.

Ace folded his legs over each other underneath the black lacquered table. "It's not complicated at all. We like each other's company. We're found more often together than I am at my actual work place—“

"—That's not a rarity," Julius broke in.

"—Or on the way on an adventure or the other." Ace turned a benevolent look her way as he confined, "Julius and I have been friends for a really long time, but he thinks that just because he doesn't approve of my lifestyle and I don't of his, it means we can't really be."

Alice listened quietly to his words, ignoring Julius's mutter of, "You just harrague me," which was true, but ignored the other side of the coin—that he let himself be harragued. He could've easily kicked Ace out whenever he wanted, after all. the door had still been open—it wasn't like Ace and her had locked him up there with them. He had been perfectly free to do whatever he'd wanted, and he'd also chosen to accompany them in the end.

Sure, he said it was because he didn't willingly want to let loose troublemakers on this town—i.e, them—but they weren't his responsibility. Whatever they did. Or... Alice wasn't his responsibility. Or maybe she was?

Actually, Alice remembered belatedly his nature as the "gatekeeper", on who's word she could stay Wonderland or leave. Maybe because it was his job to deal with people like her, he did think of her as his responsibility. That was depressing.

But his manner before then gave of the idea that it wasn't her but Ace that he wanted to bring to heel. So that was probably untrue. Probably. She couldn't be sure it wasn't.

Alice almost hit the table with these thoughts spinning in circles in the emptiness of her head. "When's the food going to arrive?"

"They have good customer's service, so very soon," Ace answered promptly, whisking his leg back and forwards beneath the table. "I often eat here—did I tell you that?" he addressed the one sitting opposite him. "Only once did an accident with my sheath happen and the funny thing is it was an actual accident this time, ahahaha!"

His laughter rang cheerfully over the noise of the other customers in the cafe. It was such a merry sound Alice almost wanted to join in, and her heart skipped a beat again.

Instead, she simply watched him. It was funny. Though his type usually weren't among the people she was the best with—those were the gloomier, more practical people rather than this ditz—she nevertheless felt at home being around him. She'd trusted him enough to enter his tent, despite him being a stranger. Despite Nightmare's warnings about how "everyone would fall in love" with her.

And hey! So far so good, right? Ace had been acting just about as friendly with his friend as with her.

He didn't seem to have been bewitched to be so good natured around her. And sure—he'd called her "cute" or "interesting" or other, just as positive labels, but he poked fun with Julius as well. She wasn't alone to getting this treatment. It reassured her absolutely nothing was being faked in her interactions with him.

"Hey, Julius, what do you think about me?" she found herself asking in the next, sitting on the seat still waiting for their food to arrive.

He raised a solitary eyebrow. "And what caused this topic to arise?"

Alice, lips pursed, pondered briefly about whether to keep it to herself, before deciding to throw down the gauntlet— "Nightmare told me about it. About outsiders. About the effects we supposedly have on the population."

"That's a myth. No one in this country can say they've met an outsider before."

Instant reaction. How suspicious, she couldn't help but think.

"A myth is often based on something real," she gently pressed.

Ace's lips parted in another smile. There were so many times they did. "You're right. That's a good point, even Julius has to give you that. And it is true that it's said that outsiders will have this strange magnetic force on us role holders. But what the reason for that is—whether it's because you can only get here if you belong here, or whether it's because you simply possess something we want to own, or whatever other reason—that's something we don't know."

"Not even me," Julius chipped in before she needed to ask.

Alice leaned her back into the plush of her chair. "Ah. Okay." She didn't know what to say to that. But finding out that, despite her wishes, it probably was a true thing? Didn't make her feel good at all.

In the next, their food arrived, and Alice silenced herself as she occupied her mouth with her panini.

Ace and Julius were still talking, though.

"Was there any issue in the—" his eyes flickered towards her, before he used an obvious euphemism, "Collection, Ace?"

Ace cheerfully failed to follow his example and said, "It was easy taking the targets down. There were only two of them. Probably parents hiding their son's clock."

Julius had a pained look on his face at that, and Alice's attention was caught like a fish on the hook.

"Target? Taking down? You're not talking about... actual people, are you?" She turned a wide-eyed look on Ace—one that simply oozed with the question to let her trust him.

"I am," he answered frankly, before his hands lowered to do something at his waist. They returned above the table with the pouch she remembered he'd been meant to give to Julius. To retrieve something? She turned her wide-eyed stare on Julius, almost accusative.

"And... "clock." Which you are. Have to do with. Clockmaker."

The luscious haired clockmaker ran a hand down his ponytail, his lips thinning while his eyebrows remained knit in that pained look. "I can't tell you anything about that."

"And why not?"

Uh oh, it seemed he'd unleashed something in Ace from that, if the stiffening of the man's spine and the way he was now propping himself up by his elbows said something.

"Ace—you know why," the clockmaker said, a message in his eyes that he persisted to get the knight to understand and desist at. But it seemed either the knight didn't care—which was the likeliest of theories, at this point—or that he didn't see it.

He twisted his neck so that he was facing her. "You want to know more about Wonderland, don't you? And I think you're stronger than you look. A small revelation won't cause you to fall apart." "In fact," he went on to say, and this was really going of the rails. Alice felt very much put on the spot— "In fact, I think this revelation will make your wish to stay here be more of a thing. When you find out that we're not homicidal psychos."

Oh. Alice felt some of the tension release out of her biceps from his words. She'd come to the conclusion they were, but hearing concrete evidence that either she'd misunderstood the hints he'd been so liberally spreading/seeding—a likely possibility—or it wasn't as bad as it seemed, there was something that would water down the truth—which was also a possibility—she felt much more at ease with the turn this conversation had taken.

"So go on," Ace gestured impatiently with the palm of his hand, aimed at the clockmaker. "Explain for her to hear. Won't you? It'll sound better coming from your mouth."

Still looking like he'd been stabbed, Julius did.

"It begins with the nature of this world," Julius began. "Which is a game. But in a game it is important for there to be participants. And for there to be participants, it is important that there is a game." Okay, circular logic, gotcha. Now what else was he going to say?

"But because of the nature of this game, participants more often than not end their life. Whether that be by taking dangerous risks of by meeting their end at the hand of callous fate. So there had to be a role that would let the game continue on, even as it's pieces were lost."

He went on to explain how he was the clockmaker, something she'd already figured out for herself.

"And, listen." Ace, speaking in the interval of his explanation, pressed himself closer to her on the couch and reached out for her wrist. He pulled it to his chest, which expanded and deflated as was usual for a chest to do... but...

Tic.

Toc.

There was something else...something not so usual.

It can't be. Alice, furrowing her brow in puzzlement, took the initiative and pressed her hand harder into the giving flesh underneath her palm. His ribcage.

Tic toc tic toc toc toc toctictoctic _tictictoc-_

Alice took in a sudden gasp and practically ripped her hand from him, jolting back to the very other end of the couch—away from him.

A strong baritone. Julius’. "I told you so."

A sigh. "You were right. Maybe she's not as strong as I thought."

People were talking. They were talking... but. It was static.

Dot dot dot.

Dot dot dot....

**"Stop."**

Darkness.

Alice looked down at the panini steaming at her plate and blinked. What... what just happened? She looked to see that her companions' meals had also already arrived.

She held a hand to her head, feeling a touch of vertigo—also deja vu, but the vertigo was what was troubling her—and excused herself. "Sorry, I must have blanked out. What were we talking about again?"

Ace, his arms pillowed behind his head again said, “Nothing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alas, there may be a plot enrouching upon my slice of life fic. I know, how rude of it, but I can't bat it away for some reason. We'll see how this goes. Edit (In my edit, I know-) should I change my summary? Please answer in the comments? 
> 
> On a different note, I've also written two Dee and Dum fanfics. In both stories they're paired up with a character of my own imagination (OC), though the stories are more about psychological drama than romance shenanigans. If this is nevertheless your "thing" -- give it a try! It won't hurt. :)


	3. B l oo d

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters showing up this chapter: Briefly, Julius; Ace; and lastly, our favourite dream demon, Nightmare~

"Oh." Shrugging, Alice began to eat her panini and left that alone. Maybe it wasn't very interesting, whatever they'd been talking about.

Over her head, Julius and Ace exchanged glance again, which she didn't notice.

Soon enough, Julius begged of as drastically having to do his work and went to go home.

"You're comfortable leaving us to our own devices?" Ace asked with a grin in front of the door to the tower. A call-back to when Julius referred to them as troublemakers needing supervision.

"What do you think?" said Julius in a deadpan and closed the door in their faces. And that was all there was to say about it.

After the door had been shut, Ace turned away and stretched his arms behind his back. "Now we're done with that, want me to lead you to the castle?" he asked her.

"Maybe you should give me instructions on how to get there instead," she deferred awkwardly, considering his misfortunes with actually getting to his destination. Sure, the journey was as important, and she would like to get to see more of the scenery from this new world, but all the same, she had a feeling she'd see nothing much if she tagged along with him because they might find themselves walking in circles.

He draped a muscular arm over her shoulders and directed her back onto the path they'd taken there. "I couldn't possibly leave you alone here. What an un-chivalrous thing to do!"

 _Like you care about chivalry all of a sudden_ , she thought but did not speak. Nevertheless, despite her true feelings on the matter, she let him lead her away. Besides, without any instruction on where to go, she was defenceless. He was the one holding all the cards here: without him she’d be literally and metaphorically lost.

They walked down the path, past elk trees and berry bushes and other kind of plants. At a certain point, Ace felt it was necessary to go off-road again and since he was her navigator here, it pained her, but she had to follow behind. They walked some more and the sky above their head winked back to daylight again.

Craning her neck, Alice stared at it, still taking off-guard by the reminders that whatever this world was, it worked on a different set of rules than hers.

That made her curious about a couple of things.

"Hey Ace."

"Hm?" he replied, willing to follow her into a conversation again.

"I'm starting to learn about this place, and it made me think. Do you know anything about my world?"

"Do I know anything about yours..." Ace repeated, looking at the distant horizon. "I do. A lot, I guess. Stuff like Shakespeare, or the proletariat. And stars. Stuff like that."

"Why that specifically?"

"Hm?"

"Well," she laid out, "It sounds like whatever knowledge you have of my world is very... I don't know how to put it. Very patchy?"

"It is." The man was nodding along at that trail of thought. "We get some insight into your world, but only from what happened for one hour. Us roleholders."

"Which would plead the thought that the people you call "faceless,"—which I presume are the people with difficult to register faces like those from the cafe we were just at?"

He flashed her a thumb's up. "Got it in once, Alice. Well noticed. And yes, that's true."

"It seems like in many ways the faceless differ from you," she said, waiting for him to take the bait.

"Hm, really?"

He disappointed.

She glanced side-away at him, catching a glimpse of the chiselled cut of his jawline.

"Yes really, though both you and Julius have been pretty demure speaking about it."

Ace chortled at the unfortunate word choice. "Ahahah, demure! Wait until I tell Julius you think of him like that. That's cute. It'll puzzle him endlessly."

She let out a sigh, dropping her gaze at the cobbled steps of the path. "You say that like it won't irritate him." From what she'd seen of the clockmaker so far told her he was a prickly fellow, so she'd expect the latter.

"It's a compliment. He won't hate it." Ace shook his head. "But Julius is used to dealing with having a bad rep, so he won't be used to a person's honest opinion made without preconceptions. I think it’s also very refreshing.”

She took from that that he had, “A bad rep?”

"It has to do with his job. But I don't think he'd want me to speak about it behind his back." Ace rubbed his head as he admitted this.

She clicked her tongue. "Understood."

"Anyway—about the differences between faceless and yourself. You really didn't aren't aware of any, Ace?"

"As I said before, not really." There was a tarter edge to his response this time. Maybe it was better if she let it go? _But I really want to know. I'm curious, and his reaction is just tempting me more,_ Alice thought. But she didn't want to show up as pushy—she'd already been called that once today and that was more than enough, so she switched the topic to Peter instead. Though the topic was a frustrating one.

"Do you know about why Peter is so..."

"So...?"

"—So stalker-ish! He said he was watching me for an hour each day and I don't feel comfortable with that."

Something seemed to hit him as off with that. "Each day? Not just an hour each Sunday afternoon?"

"Well, that is the day he kidnapped me," she said in defeat. Though could it be called kidnapping if, after he'd done the deed, he'd absconded and left her behind like last night's leftovers? It was a good thing Alice was not actually a prideful young lady or she'd take that as an insult. Instead, she was just scared of him, and the thought that he could break into her life at and turn it round again.

"He has an affinity with that time, I think," Ace replied, humming in the back of his throat. He gestured with the flats of his hands. "If only because he did take you with him, for whom that time is very important. But from what I know of him, that's really out of character. He's icy and hates everyone—"

"You said that before," she noted.

"Yes. He literally dislikes everyone. Maybe because he's such a germaphobe?" He let out another of those humming sounds at the thought. "And everyone carries germs," he finished brightly.

"If he does hate germs then..." Alice recalled how he’d embraced her while they were falling, confessing about the time he'd "admired her", and how he just didn't want her to be sad and she'd see that Wonderland was a better place to be in. But Wonderland didn't hold her sisters. It didn't hold the life she'd been carefully building herself. Which was why, no matter how much she may have wanted it to be, Wonderland could never be home.

“I can’t see it. When he was with me...”

The only reason she was still staying here and not begging Julius to return her home was because this could act as a vacation of sorts. Because her mind was at ease that the road to back home was still open.

Though from what the caterpillar said, being able to return would only happen if she won the game of hearts. If she fell in love with anyone here, that was a definite fail. He hadn't mentioned Julius and his job as a gatekeeper. It seemed suspicious, on retrospect. Could she even trust his words about the bottle now? Or—a flash to Ace speaking about Peter's poison hobby—should she start worrying?

“Hehehe, I really want to see how he is around you now. From what you’re saying, there’s a whole new side to him.”

Alice nodded absently at that, having already moved on from thinking about the bunny.

"Ace,” she said, serious now. “let's talk about Nightmare. Let's talk about whether he's trustworthy."

Ace didn't blink at the whiplash of topic changes, just smoothly going along. "He disappeared on you when I appeared. And I could have very easily thought you a bad guy and used my sword to skewer you, ahaha."

A chagrined wince crossed her face at his words.

She confessed in a hush, "I actually thought that was what you were going to do. That brown cloak you had on over your clothes-" she gestured vaguely in his direction, "-doesn't conceal your identity that well now I know you, but before, with that mask on too, you looked menacing."

"Should I take that as a compliment or not?" he replied, a crooked grin appearing on his face. Alice looked to the in front of her again, and away from the sight.

"Whatever you want. So, from your words, Nightmare is a bad guy?"

He gestured offhand to the side. "I could easily convince you he is. It's even in his name—Nightmare. But I'll be frank. Nightmare has a reputation almost as bad and unearned as Julius does." His voice constricted in seriousness. "I say almost because he does like using his gifts on unwilling people to dig at their weaknesses, which I don't think a good guy would ever do."

She remembered that Nightmare could read her mind. He could spy her weaknesses, if he wanted to.

"That's...scary."

"It is," Ace returned. The dull thump of the up and down of their feet on the earthen terrain continued for a while as she pondered what else to ask. She didn't feel satisfied knowing that Nightmare was a bad guy. So was Peter—he poisoned people—but he hadn't yet done her harm outside of the invasion of her privacy, the stalking, the... actually, okay, he had. But he hadn't poisoned her or assassinated her though he was capable of it, and on that same line of thought, it meant Nightmare didn't have to use his power in that malicious way on her either.

Yes. In the end, it was about the bottle, wasn't it?

It wasn't about whether he was a trustworthy person ~in general~ but simply that he was one in his goings with her. Resolutely, Alice dropped her hand in her dress pocket and fetched out her bottle, before she called out Ace's name again to get his attention. Attention drawn, he glanced down before his burgundy eyes widened, recognition blazing visibly in them.

"This. What is this. What does it do?" she voiced her complaints.

The knight's eyes traced down the path of the bottle, before they stopped onto the couple of droplets at the very bottle. "That's how Peter and Nightmare is trapping you here."

It was said matter of fact.

Trapping. Was that what it had returned to again?

"Julius can send me back, though. So I'm not trapped," she refuted with a shake of her head. She played with her thumb on the heart shaped bottle cap.

He rubbed the back of his head. "You're right! Sorry, that was a wrong choice of words. And to begin with, that bottle isn't something that wouldn't be here even if you had had Julius's permission to cross."

Alice was stunned and gazed back into his red eyes. "It's that important?"

"It's your heart," Ace answered promptly. She let her gaze go to the bottle, to it's translucent surroundings.

"My heart is made of glass. Okay."

Ace chuckled, his sword swinging by his side as they started down the hill. They had suddenly started walking down a hill, when did that happen? —

"It's a metaphor. That glass bottle just indicates things in your heart. If you broke it—though I don't especially think that's possible—your heart wouldn't necessarily break, too. Since it's an indicator, in fact, it'd probably only break if something has a strong impact in your heart, thought what it would mean is something I don't know."

Metaphors. Alice made a face, brushing a strand of her long dark blonde hair behind her ear. Her sister had liked them a lot, she remembered. In fact, before she'd chased a rabbit down a hole, hadn't her sister been speaking something about the metaphor of the book Alice in Wonderland?

But she didn't really remember that much. Except for her wanting to play card games with the woman. It'd felt very important that Lorina get the pack, that they play, even though if Lorina hadn't gone in to find it she'd probably still be there with her right now.

Inwardly, Alice shook her head. That doesn't matter. She was sure that Peter would've just found another day to take her at, so the end result would've been the same.

"But if it's my heart, why did Nightmare say the liquid at the bottom of this bottle is influenced by how much I start liking the people at this world? Before he started talking about a game."

"I don't know." The knight's voice for once was almost melancholic, reflecting on something in his past. "But I can tell you that there exists no such game of hearts. If you're here, you can leave when you want to. Counter wise, you can also stay for however long you want to. We even got Julius's official approval on the matter."

Since when? Alice didn't remember getting it—it hadn't been said in so many words. Just because she'd been successful in pestering him to join her and the knight for lunch didn't mean that he'd approved of her and her presence here.

"Believe me." Ace's voice lightened, humoured. "I know Julius. That was most definitely him permitting you to stay here. He even acted as if you staying at his house was a possibility! Well okay, in the terms of "there is no space" and "there's two of them, what do I do," but even him toying with the idea is promising."

They passed a stream as she chewed on this. And then shrugged. Even if she didn't have his "official approval" it was clear that she in some way did, as he hadn't kicked her out yet.

 _I'm just going to enjoy the time I have here for as long as possible_.

"Anyway, I won't trust Nightmare then."

"Good idea," said Ace. "But is there something I can ask you?"

Alice didn't have a problem with that, gesturing dismissively with one hand. "Ask away," she said.

"Do you want to trust Nightmare?"

"Eh?"

"It's probably true that since he's one of the people who masterminded your stay here, that he doesn't wish you harm. In that case, don't you think you can trust him?"

"I don't understand the question."

A slight smile crossed the knight's face as he padded over the grassy land. "Alice. I'm not a good person."

"I've noticed," she replied, to the extent that him speaking of chivalry had made her laugh inside her heart. He spoke about alarming things, giving her hints about the true nature of Wonderland—and thus, him. "What about that? Weren't we talking about the caterpillar?"

An eyebrow rose. "You call him that too—but nevermind. Getting back on track, what I mean is... We're friends. Aren't we?"

They had been acting very friendly so far, Alice had to admit. Though it'd only been two days—she thought? Yes. Probably two days. And that wasn't enough time to really know a person, she'd made friends even quicker than this before. "Yes," she answered him out loud.

He flashed a smile her way. "Great!"

He then said nothing about Nightmare anymore, which Alice had to scratch her head about. What had that all been about? ...Well, it didn't matter, either way.

Their feet made squelching noises as they passed a stream—

"Hey, wait a sec." Frowning, Alice stopped her movement and looked at the water as it chucked along the peddled road. "This stream. Didn't we just pass it?" And now that she was thinking about it— "Didn't we go down a hill twice?"

Ace tried to laugh it off with a swish of his hand. "Aahaha, that's impossible. We've been walking straight! There's no way we've been walking in circles."

Alice's frown deepened while she inspected the red bedecked him with sceptical eyes. "Didn't we get turned away at that glade a while ago? You just suddenly turned away as if we couldn't go onto that land."

The knight stroked his chin. "Now that you mention it. There was a glade, wasn't there?"

"Or that time we got onto the path again and we say a walled area in the distance, and you led us away again," Alice reminisced.

"True," Ace said, humoured.

She pointed at him. "Ace.... you actually do have us walking in circles."

Oh, great.

"I guess that means we'll have to camp soon," he replied, calm even when at (metaphorical) gunpoint.

Alice let her head hang. "Yeah. Yeah, I think we do."

And they did, when the sky changed to the pitch black that signified night time.

After finding a space in between a cluster of tree stalks, Ace pulled the tent material out of the lining of his red coat and started setting poles up in four corners on the ground.

"This is so stupid."

Alice was watching him sitting on the grass, her legs kicked out in front of her, leaning her cheek in her hand. She suppressed a yawn from bubbling up—they'd been walking for a while, so she was physically exhausted, and the darkness always did make her tired.

"You can help," he replied to that, raising his head slightly to look at her.

"I don't really know how. Besides, I don't think you need any." With his athletic physique, she didn't doubt he was used to doing the heavy lifting anyway.

He used his foot to shove a stick deeper into the earth before he took the tent canvas and started tying it to the supports.

“So do you have any dinner stashed away somewhere?”

His red eyes flicked to hers when she spoke, and he scratched the back of his head. “About that...”

Alice’s stomach rumbling in desperation, she almost teared up at the declaration.

In the end, Ace ended up hunting for their dinner. But it wasn’t that easily said and done. Alice trotted with him as he went (because otherwise he wouldn’t be able to find his way back to the camp), hiding motionlessly behind trees or bushes or any plants with stalks fat enough to hide behind.

Except the game he was hunting turned out to be distracting (it was a gazelle) from the _actual_ danger.

 _Snik._ Pain. “Owch!”

She looked down:

“Ahh, figures.”

 Alice sighed as she felt the cold bite of the snake’s venom rush through her. The snake whose fangs had just clamped around her ankle with all the delicacy of a mouse trap snapping shut.

“What?” Ace called out, dancing around the gazelle as it tried to ram him with the only weapons it could access, its muscular legs.

Before she could answer, she was already hitting the floor.

Alice heard the scrape of his boots against the ground of Ace running. Ace crouching down beside her. Ace saying—-she could... _almost_ hear, but—

It all grew dark around her.

“Oh Alice.”

A tutting voice boomed loud next to her ear and she yelped, scrambling to the side and then backwards. Actually, it wasn’t completely dark—there were distant pinpricks of light in the void-like space, now that she was paying attention.

Also, Nightmare stood floating in front of her. The voice had been his.

“Not only are you hanging around someone truly troublesome, but now you’re poisoned when that troublesome fellow can’t get any help.” Because he’d get lost, was the underlying thought.

Alice used her elbows to push herself on her feet and said, “He goes outdoors a lot so he probably has an anti-venom kit on him,”

“You hope so,” the floating dream demon finished for her. “But there’s something on your mind. Since I’m here, why not ask me it?”

“You tell me. You’re reading my mind,” she said.

“Ah, but I prefer to hold an actual conversation with you.” The dream demon smiled. “It doesn’t cost you much, does it?”

No. Alice supposed it didn’t.

“Why did you lie?”

He hiked angular shoulders up in a shrug, the weird white shawl thing wrapped around both wrists and spiralling out from behind him looking as ridiculous as ever. “I simply thought you’d leave if you didn’t have any incentive.”

“So you made up a... a “game” for me to win?” She looked at him with a naked look of perplexation on her face.

“Ahaha. At least you’re not taking it badly?”

It was a question he voiced to himself, more than her. After all, he could always read the answer in her mind.

“Yeah. In my conversation with Ace, I decided that it didn’t matter. I suppose you couldn’t help it.”

The man’s bushy eyebrows rose. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”

She scoffed. “You can read this much from my thoughts.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “I can, but I want to hear you justify it in your own words.” He crooked a brow at her sigh at that, saying, “Humour me?”

Alice gestured with her hands in the air, setting the scene. “I heard from you about the fact that this world is a game, with a three-way war. Ace additionally told me about the fact that most of you—roleholders—are killers. Though from what he said, it seemed that this is a push-and-pull response to your violent surroundings, where _maybe_ you don’t want to fight but are pushed to. You with me so far?”

“That much is true,” he admitted easily.

She took in a deep breath and continued her explanation. “And then there’s me. Who Peter White—“ her fine features twisted like she’d been sucking on a lemon, “—has been stalking. Ugh. And Ace told me about how you know things about my world, so that means you must have some way to access it. So you and the rabbit, who only know the ugliness in the world, felt envious towards _my_ world, and decided to take me out of it so you could have some part of what you don’t have. Someone with my world’s morals, and who you also know won’t be... replaced...”

Her words slowed as they left her lips, until they stopped coming completely, and she mouthed to herself, “How do I know that?”

Replaced?

A starburst of colour. A cafe filled with people looking uneasily at their table. Julius and Ace. A conversation.

...Clocks?

“Right...” They’d spoken about it. Julius was a clockmaker, and—-

Nightmare wrapped her arms around her sides, pulling her flush to his floating self, her feet scraping the floor. She heard the tic toc tic toc from where she had her ear pressed against him. The heartbeats of the people in this word.

Alice.

 _R_ e _m_ e _m_ b _e_ r _e_ d.

The world around her trembled. The trembling resembled nothing more than the pulsing and undulating of _blood._

 _No._ Alice gasped against the wrinkled material of his shirt. Alice shook her head, knocking her cheeks against the chest behind it’s thin layer.

It wasn’t as much of a big deal as acknowledging—nay, accepting—the fact that the people of this world were all serial killers in the making. It should even make her feel better about that fact, since Ace had all but said people could be brought back to life by getting their clock repaired.

But then her brow furrowed, and she latched desperately on the distraction.

That was _not_ what he said. He’d said “replaced.” Not “brought back.”

 _Either way, does it matter?_ She cleared her mind of it, returning it to the topic-

_denial didn’t have to be just a sea in Egypt, right?_

Saying, “-And that’s the reason why I can still talk to you right now, though you masterminded the kidnapping along with Peter. I don’t blame you: it’s because I feel sorry for you.”

 _Let me go,_ she thought in between that, _I don’t want to **hear.**_

Her words (both thought and spoken) might be cruel, but they were also the truth. She watched him closely for a reaction.

The hovering dream demon closed his eyes for a second, an expression of pain crossing his face, and he released her gently onto the ground. He hovered himself a few meters away from her and only then said, “Well then, I’ll accept your pity, if it means we can still be friends.”

The black void around her flickered.

“It seems he got you help-“ Nightmare’s voice rumbled as everything shook. Then, with a flicker of static, Alice’s feet were planted back onto solid ground.

“Wakey-wakey.”

The woods around her hadn’t changed since her venture into Nightmare’s shadow realm. Across from her Ace sat on the back of his haunches. He was the one who’d just welcomed her up.

“The poison?”

Saying so, Alice looked down at her leg where the snake had taken a bite, and started hiking up her pants leg to see the spot.

“I have a couple of antidotes with me,” said Ace. He let out a sheepish laugh. “it took a while to choose the correct one.”

Explained why she was feeling so stiff right now, with her leg throbbing like one big bruise, Alice assumed and removed her hands from her leg.

Seeing what she wanted to do, Ace extended his hand at her from across and helped her up.

“So what are we going to do now? Did you already manage to find us food?”

“That would mean leaving you behind when you’ve already been attacked by wildlife once. That’s enough,” Ace shook his head as he replied. “I wouldn’t make much of a knight if I couldn’t defend even one helpless maiden, right?”

 _I’m not exactly a maiden,_ she thought Alice. But she kept the thought to herself and instead pulled a smile onto her face.

“Thank you for caring.”

The red spikey-haired knight shrugged.

“But hey, Alice,” he said, almost on a side note.

She cocked her head at him to show she was listening and murmured an affirmation to the call.

“We still need to find food, though. . . . But if you’re around me, you’ll end up in bad luck again. But if you stay at the camp, I might not be able to make my way back around. Ahhh, it’s a problem!”

He was speaking the truth. She was about to answer him and say she had no clue as to what to do either, when he suddenly crossed the distance between them, shoved his arms underneath her armpits and was lifting her up.

“Wah!” she cried out.

Ignoring her, Ace hiked her over his shoulder fire fighter style. His chest rumbled as he laughed, which she felt, pressed against him. He said, “Now it’s no longer a problem! I can make sure you’re protected like this, and even if it takes a while for us to find food, you won’t get tired. I’m a genius. Ahahaaha.”

He let loose a series of carefree hearted laughs, and Alice didn’t like that.

She began pummelling her fists against his back. “Don’t touch me! Let go of me!”

Her face was burning with humiliation.

“Aha ha ha!” Ace laughed.

And so, Ace (and with her as unfortunate hostage) started the food hunt.

Ace charged first through the thickets. Crying out some strange war cry –

“Ulalalalala!”

He ... -wasn’t stealthy in the least.

Alice understood she wouldn’t be able to make him let her down, and fell limp against his back. Instead, with her cheek pressed against his shoulder blades, she watched with a disinterested face as he wildly lashed out with his sword. It rang as he sliced it through air and vines and other plant tissue.

This continued for a while, Ace jumping – and she had to cling to his shoulders with her legs tucked in when he did that – and carousing through the overgrowth of the forest floor. _Ah,_ she thought, her eyes hazing up with sleep, _if only he stopped jumping and I could just sleep._

“Are you alright there?” she heard from him, and with how close she was to him, right on top of him, it was like a gunshot right next to her ear and her heart jumped before she recognized his unique pitch.

“Ace.” She smiled prettily. “Whisper when you’re talking next, please.”

She could see the edge of his smile from where his head was turned away from her, widening at her words, and the skin of his back vibrated with a chuckle she was one hundred percent sure he was holding in.

But don’t get her wrong. This outing with Ace – though she knew this wasn’t a trip to him, just yet more of his daily life – _was_ fun. She was having a lot of fun because his back was broad and warm, and could shelter her against the elements efficiently. Though he was running seemingly aimlessly, she knew he never made any movements she wouldn’t be able to brace against and handle. _And_ the way he moved resembled nothing more than a rollercoaster ride.

Her eyes creasing as she shut them, Alice basked in this content feeling. 


End file.
